Texas A&M basketball is coming off of a thrilling 2-point win over Oklahoma last night. If you didn't stay up to watch the late-night game, you missed a second-half comeback by the Aggies, from being down 18 points to taking a 5-point lead.
They had to weather yet one more run by the Sooners, who took the lead back in the waning moments, but SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps, who led the Aggies with 34 points, buried the Sooners with under 20 seconds to go, hitting a stepback three-pointer that obliterated the ankles of two OU defenders.
Zhu called game!!🗣️🔥#GigEm pic.twitter.com/1sLql1EHuO
— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) January 9, 2025
Perhaps the most impressive piece of this win is that the Aggies accomplished it without their star player, Wade Taylor, who was ruled out the day before the game. There is still not a lot of clarity on what his injury is or when he will return, but Phelps more than picked up the slack for this one.
The Aggies' furious comeback sets up an unbelievably huge matchup for the program this Saturday as no. 5 Alabama comes to town. Incredibly, this is the first-ever top-10 home matchup for Texas A&M basketball— and the Aggies have a chance to extend their win streak against AP top 25 teams to a program-best five games.
The last time Alabama visited Reed Arena, it was a decisive win for the Aggies behind 28 points from Taylor and 21 points from Tyrece Radford. Radford, of course, has moved on, and it's a possibility that the Aggies will be without Taylor for this one depending on how he is recovering from his injury.
In any case, though, this Aggie team has showed that they have what it takes to hang with top teams, even without Taylor. The Aggies will be garnering more and more attention this year with the level of play they've been sustaining— here's hoping they remain undefeated at Reed on Saturday.